India take 17 balls to win Test on Day 5

India took only 17 deliveries to take the remaining one wicket on Day 5 (Wednesday, August 22) and win the Nottingham Test by 203 runs. Ravichandran Ashwin, hitherto wicketless in the Test match, deceived James Anderson with the carom ball and had him gloving behind to bring up India’s third biggest win in terms of runs over England.
Hardik Pandya and Mohammed Shami started the day for India, but Ashwin soon replaced Pandya and struck with his fifth delivery.
India had looked to wrap this up yesterday, even opting for an extra half hour that was available to them, but Adil Rashid and James Anderson survived 34 deliveries to defy India. The fact that Adil Rashid was out to Jasprit Bumrah off a no-ball and was then reprieved by a dropped catch in the slip didn’t help matters.
The win keeps India’s good track record at Trent Bridge intact, a venue where they won in 2007 and drew in 2014. The Test is also an outlier in how the pacers fared, picking 19 out of 20 wickets in what was a first. Johannesburg earlier this year was the only time Indian pacers took all 20 wickets.
The Test was set up by Virat Kohli, who won the Player of the Match award with scores of 97 and 103. England, it could be said, lost the match in the first innings itself, when Pandya’s maiden five-wicket haul shut them out for 161. Kohli’s hundred in the second innings and Pandya’s quickfire 52 not out helped India declare, setting England an impossible target of 521.
England showed some spine on Day 4 in the form of a 169-run stand between Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes, the former even raising a maiden Test hundred, but India broke through with the second new ball after enduring a wicketless second session. Jasprit Bumrah cut through England with his second five-wicket haul in four Tests and set up a brilliant win.
Brief scores: India 329 & 352/7 decl (Virat Kohli 103, Cheteshwar Pujara 72) beat England 161 & 317 (Jos Buttler 106, Ben Stokes 62; Jasprit Bumrah 5-85) by 203 runs.